Organomercurials, research

Some of these developments have come with the discovery that organomercurials can display significant Lewis acidity when substituted by electron-withdrawing groups. Taking into account the air and water stability of organomercurials, these discoveries have fueled a great deal of research directed toward the synthesis of... 

While it is our intent to be comprehensive in our treatment of the topic, space limitation forces us to restrict our coverage to selected examples which will hopefully allow the reader to capture the most important aspects of current organomercury chemistry. Although the material used to write this chapter has been extracted from original research reports that have appeared in the last 10 years, we would like to direct the reader to a series of recent reviews which deal with some aspects of organomercury chemistry. 

Polynuclear organomercurials featuring proximal mercury centers have often been considered as multidentate Lewis acids. This research area has witnessed some noteworthy developments which will be summarized in the following sections. 

Synthetic Utility. One goal of this research was to investigate new synthetic uses of organomercurials. Although the synthetic utility of this reaction has not been extensively investigated, products such as that from Reaction 16 in Table I do suggest a possible utility to organic chemists. Thus, the preparation of a-alkoxyketones should be possible by consecutive alkoxymercuration and ozonation reactions. 

Additional synthetic protocols are available for the preparation of research quantities of aluminum alkyls that are not commercially available by the above routes. Of these, reaction of an organomercury reagent with aliuninum metal... 

The methylmercury tragedy and the role of vitamin have generated much current research as well. Pratt has reviewed the extensive chemistry of the latter 213, 214). Methylcobalamin s role in methylation likewise received attention (2, 3, 20, 206). The myriad aspects of the mechanism by which methylmercuric compounds and other organomercurials interact with biochemical processes are being studied by many groups of professionals. 

Organomercury compounds, such as aryl and alkoxy-aryl, have been used in medicine, agriculture, and laboratory research. Their use in fungicides has been greatly reduced or eliminated. 

Fig. 9.1 Dr. Alexander Borisovich Ershler (1935-1989) with his group. From right Dr. chem. A.B. Ershler, Ph.D. phys. Eduard M. Podgaetskii, Engr. Tatyana S. Orekhova, Ph.D. chem. Ida M. Levinson another member of the group, postgraduate student Vladimir Kurmaz, was drafted at this time into the Soviet army. Areas of research adsorption theory of neutral organic compounds and its influence on kinetics of electrode reactions, electrode reactions of organomercury compounds, development of new electrochemical methods (high-speed pulse chronopotentiometry, electroreflection, and optical transitions at the metal-electrolyte interface, etc.). ELAN, 1975...

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